Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) posted an 8.5 per cent increase in first-quarter profit on higher lending growth.

The bank earned a net profit of 548 million riyals ($150.5 million) for the first three months of 2014, compared with 506 million in the same period last year.

The bank, which bought Turkish lender Alternatifbank last year, had previously reported three successive quarters of declining profits as higher provisioning dragged down earnings.

The bank's provisions for impairment losses in the first three months of 2014 dropped to 59.3 million riyals against 69.5 million in the same period in 2013.

The loans and advances stood at 68.7 billion riyals at the end of March, up 33.6 per cent from last year. Deposits stood at 62.1 billion riyals on March 31, up 34.5 per cent year-on-year.-Reuters